


satellite

by homovikings



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Modern AU, Pseudo-Incest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 10:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12680016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homovikings/pseuds/homovikings
Summary: “You’re such an asshole,” Hela says, her lips twitching the slightest amount. “I don’t know why my parents keep you.”~*~Loki starts living with his temporary foster family at age five.He attends numerous interviews with potential adoptive parents throughout the years, suffering rejection after rejection, while building a relationship with Odin's eldest son, Thor.





	satellite

**Author's Note:**

> hey so i can't get the idea of a modern au with thor, loki, hela, balder, and tyr sibling dynamics out of my head so i am going to write all of them down in this here piece of work what's up
> 
> so, just to be clear, here, hela is an ass and she makes a joke that loki's real father is a drug lord (he isn't) but i'm warning y'all here about that insensitive remark. 
> 
> comments & kudos appreciated <3

Loki is six and has been living with his foster family for a year when Hela, twelve years old and by far the most intimidating of Odin’s children, pulls him aside and tells him, “Your father was a drug lord.”

He gawks at her. Hela nods primly and inspects her nails, the image of nonchalance. “Yeah. He also kills people. Like, regularly. With a _knife_. And he once created a bomb and —”

“Stop lying!” Thor — from the other room — yells suddenly, Cap’n Crunch Crunchberries flying from his mouth and covering his baby brother, Balder, in their soggy remnants. Thor is, by far, Loki’s second-favorite foster relative; he’s nine and unafraid and is really, really good at making blanket forts and sometimes he lets Loki play the knight in shining armor to his damsel in distress.

Balder starts crying and Loki is reminded that Balder exists. He’s so easy to forget, sometimes, because he’s so quiet and tiny, three years old and so easily pleased that all you have to do is hand him a toy to nibble on and he’s occupied for two to four hours. Thor twitches and stares at Balder in horror.

“Good job, Thor,” Hela says, voice laden with sarcasm. “You made _it_ cry!”

With Thor no longer defending Loki — or his father — he finds himself anxious and stressed out about what Hela said and begins to cry. Balder continues crying and Loki isn’t one to be outdone so he makes sure that he cries _louder_ , and Thor looks increasingly frazzled as he hops off his chair and makes his way to Loki. Of course, that’s when Frigga (Loki's _favorite_ foster family member) runs into the room.

“What —” she manages, before Loki and Balder interrupt.

“Why does my d-dad sell dru-u-u-hh-uhhhhh-gs!” Loki sobs.

Balder simply collapses against the back of his highchair and continues crying as limp, soggy cereal slides down his cheeks.

Frigga picks Balder up and begins rocking him and patting his back while making reassuring shushing noises. Thor stares intently at her before wrapping both arms around Loki and going _shhhhhhhhhh_ in his ear really, really enthusiastically; he accidentally spits and coats Loki’s ear in saliva but the intention was nice so Loki stops crying and basks in his comfort while leveling Hela with a smug glare.

“Whatever,” Hela mutters, rolling her eyes and stalking away.

Once Balder settles down, Frigga makes her way over to where Thor is wrapped around Loki on the couch and lowers herself onto the seat next to them. With Balder pre-occupied with one of Frigga’s earrings, she asks, “What was this about your father?”

Loki sniffles dramatically. It has the desired result: Thor tightens his hold and even puts a sticky hand in Loki’s hair. “She said Loki’s dad was a _drug lord_ and he makes _bombs_ and he _kills people_ ,” Thor says. He shakes his head disbelievingly, mimicking a motion he saw Odin do the other day while watching the news.

Frigga purses her lips. “That’s not true, Loki,” she says softly. “Your father is a good man, he — he just needs some time to himself, you know, and he thought having you here, with us, would be best for you.”

Nodding emphatically, Thor adds, “Dad says your dad is just sad and did something he shouldn’t have and he got grounded and that’s why you’re here, because he got grounded and because of the thing he did.” He sounds so wise and proud of himself. Loki nods and burrows his head into Thor’s chest.

“’Kay,” he says, voice muffled.

* * *

Loki still lives with them by the time he’s eight; they’re still, legally, his foster family, though he’s old enough now to know that he’s not been legally adopted. Hela likes to remind Loki of this every now and then, that he’s essentially their ‘tenant’, that he’s kind of even a prisoner like his father, but then Thor overhears and throws whatever is in reach at Hela and roars about Hela being a “stupid bitch” (a phrase he picked up in his 6th grade class, of which he started a few weeks prior).

Thor’s responses to Hela’s mean remarks make Loki feel warm and safe. He takes to goading Hela when Thor isn’t within earshot; makes fun of her awkward haircut, always makes sure to point out when she sports new pimples, calls her favorite musicians stupid. He times it perfectly and is rewarded with Thor’s wrath whenever he overhears Hela spewing insults back at Loki.

Their fighting stresses Balder out. He wrings his hands together whenever Hela and Loki go at it, pleading in the background, “Can we play dolls?” while holding a hand-me-down Barbie and a hand-me-down GI Joe.

Whenever Thor intervenes during a Hela vs. Loki argument, he drags Loki to the backyard and into the forest preserve encircling their home. Most times they clamber up into the tree house Odin helped them build a year prior, but sometimes Thor takes Loki farther — leads him down winding paths, under dipping trees and overgrown bushes and exposed roots until they find a flat circle of land upon which they sit.

“Don’t listen to her, Loki,” Thor tells him. He’s so — so _solemn_ , so defensive, his tiny hands digging into Loki’s shoulders where he clutches at him and Loki _preens_ under the attention. “I think my mom dropped her when she was a baby and that’s why she’s such a bitch.”

Loki averts his gaze and nods. It always makes Thor tugs him closer until they’re hugging. Loki thinks, _this is all I need_. He thinks, _I hope nobody adopts me._

* * *

Thor’s a freshman in high school when his eldest brother, Tyr, comes to visit; Loki has never met him, though he’s been assured by Frigga multiple times that she’s spoken about Loki, at length, to Tyr over the phone. He supposes she’s telling the truth as, when Tyr meets him, he pulls Loki into a hug and digs his knuckles into his skull and asks him to show him some constellations, sometime.

Thor comes home from school and sees Tyr and practically knocks him over with the force of his hug. His brother had been stationed overseas with naught but late-night Skype sessions and hastily written letters to keep him in contact with his family; he never even took leave which was, naturally, a point of contention between him, Odin, and Frigga.

Still, Loki feels like an outsider when they all settle in to a family dinner. Even Hela seems relatively tame, that night — she pokes at her dinner with a slight frown but refrains from making asinine or instigating comments. She’s finishing up her junior year of high school and answers Tyr’s probing questions with clipped, quick responses. Seeing her so obviously discomfited fills Loki with inexplicable jubilation.

After dinner, when Thor, Frigga, Odin, Balder, and Tyr gather in the living room to reminisce and bond, Loki follows Hela to her room.

“What do you want,” Hela asks, more statement than question.

Loki shrugs. “I don’t care about Tyr,” he says honestly.

Hela laughs suddenly. She seems as surprised by it as Loki is.

Two weeks prior, Loki met with a couple that was interested in adoption. He knew before he even walked in to the consultation that they were doing it for shitty reasons — they felt _bad_ , he knew, they wanted to _rescue_ a kid like him from the system, they wanted to have a _story_ — and he took ridiculous amounts of pleasure in tearing both of them apart bit-by-bit until they left with red-rimmed and furious eyes and Frigga sat with her head in her hands in the waiting room. Later that night, as he got comfortable in bed, he overheard Frigga and Odin talking with Hela interjecting every-so-often. Since then, she had been marginally kinder.

“You’re such an asshole,” Hela says, her lips twitching the slightest amount. “I don’t know why my parents keep you.”

Loki shrugs. He wonders the same thing.

They chill on the floor and watch Netflix on Hela’s laptop until things quiet down outside. Loki stands and kicks at Hela’s trashcan to upend its contents as he leaves, heading towards Thor’s room instead of his own.

Thor’s laying on his bed when Loki enters, propped up against two pillows with his face illuminated by the soft glow of his phone. He glances towards his door when Loki pushes it open. “Is everyone asleep?” Loki asks.

“Yeah,” Thor says. He scoots over, makes room for Loki.

Loki closes the door. He settles in next to Thor on the bed and pulls out his phone. The silence lasts about ten, twenty minutes before Loki says, “Why haven’t your parents kicked me out yet?”

He can _feel_ Thor’s surprise — the way Thor jerks, suddenly, as if struck, the way he _bristles_ with indignation immediately after — and the sensation fills Loki with wonder, with the same awe he’d feel as a child when Thor would dash forward and defend him against anyone who dared speak against Loki.

Thor’s face darkens as he hits the power button on his phone mid-text. He turns and faces Loki. “Why the fuck would they have?” he asks.

Loki swallows at the anger in Thor’s voice. He presses the power button on his phone, too, leaves it on vibrate as he shrugs and says, “I don’t know, I mean, Hela keeps saying —”

Thor growls, honest-to-god _growls_ , and abruptly leans over Loki to scrabble at his phone charger hanging out on the floor. After he plugs his phone in, he resumes his previous position of leaning against his headboard. “You _know_ she’s full of shit,” Thor says. “If my parents didn’t care about you then they would have kicked you out a while ago.”

Loki turns his phone back on, stares mindlessly at his home screen. “I guess,” he answers, unsure.

With a huff, Thor wraps his arm around Loki’s shoulders and drags him close, stuffs Loki’s face against his chest and says, adamant, “As if I’d _let_ my parents get rid of you,” and Loki’s heart aches and melts and thumps at the same time as his mind goes, _oh, fuck_.

**Author's Note:**

> so this first chapter here is pre-slash (obviously) primarily in the latter half but next chapter will begin the slash-y elements. 
> 
> again, comments and kudos appreciated! thanks for reading!
> 
> i can be found on twitter [here](https://twitter.com/homovikings/)! just send a follow req :)!


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